Verizon Takes J.D. Power Customer Care Crown From T-Mobile

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In recent years, Verizon and T-Mobile have been neck and neck when it comes to customer care performance, a race that I (and surely many other customers) have seen the benefits of firsthand. T-Mobile held on to the top spot a few months back in the first installment of J.D. Power and Associates’ Wireless Customer Care Performance Study, but Verizon has managed to take the lead for volume 2.

Despite Verizon’s triumphant crowing, it was perhaps a closer race than they were willing to admit. Big Red’s Customer Care Index Ranking is in fact the industry leader at 770, but T-Mobile was certainly no slouch at 766. While Verizon was specifically cited for good satisfaction feedback about calls beginning with an automated system and ending with a CSR, T-Mobile excels at pleasing customers who opt for online support.

Meanwhile, Sprint and AT&T retained their third and fourth place positions respectively, and both fall below the industry average score of 762. In their Power Circle rankings, J.D. Power gives them both a 2, effectively branding them as the “other guys” of customer satisfaction.

While I’m glad to see Verizon and T-Mobile being called out for taking care of their customers, reports like this should hopefully be a kick in the pants to all four carriers. Verizon’s 770 sounds pretty good, but J.D. Power’s scale tops out at a whopping 1,000, so everyone has their improvements to make. In all fairness, Sprint certainly seems better than it has in the past, but I foresee the roughest road for AT&T. Should the proposed merger with T-Mobile go through, they’ll have to put some major time into not alienating their new customers, considering this is their second showing at dead last. Hopefully, they pick up some of T-Mobile’s friendly DNA in the process, but only time will tell.